


Strained Thread ~Fear of Hell~

by The_Exile



Category: Dark Savior
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Dialogue-Only, Gen, Let's Mess With Garian's Head, Parallel 5, Parallel 6 is totally real, Speculation, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-28
Updated: 2013-09-28
Packaged: 2017-12-27 21:44:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 10,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/983960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Exile/pseuds/The_Exile
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Never managing to get off the boat, not even having as much understanding of his fate as the others, Garian-5 finds himself engaged in a long conversation with what he believes to be an envoy of the Underworld. Using examples of the people he has met - and murdered - in his longer-lived Parallels, he is helped to remember everything that happened to him... and then taught some things about his broken Universe that the other Garians don't know.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

  1. _'I've told you before, Garian. I've warned you before about your fate, and your one-way journey...'_




 

**Do you understand where you are?**

In the Underworld.

 

**Do you understand why?**

Because I am dead.

 

**Do you remember why you are dead?**

Bilan. I was killed by Bilan. He had escaped, and he had gotten into the Captain's Cabin. I ran inside just in time for me to save the Captain. He turned on me... I didn't have time to draw my sword before he pounced... oh crap, the entire ship's already dead... he could have gone anywhere... someone's got to warn the authorities...

 

**It isn't the time for that at the moment, Garian. You won't be able to contact the outside world from where you are now. All that exists in this world, literally, is this room, myself, yourself and anything else that gets created in this room as we go along. Or did you expect to be able to pick up a phone in the Underworld? The ship is going down in five second's time. They aren't even going to be able to find the bodies. If you're lucky, someone might be praying for you.**

I thought Jack might be able to do something. I wouldn't put it past him to be able to speak to the dead. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he came in flying in soon. I can never get rid of the little bastard.

 

**Jack isn't here, Garian. This is the one place he can't follow you. Even if the bird died, he would be in his own Underworld, being judged on his own sins.**

Sins. Yeah. I hope my soul's lighter than I think it is.

 

**You don't fancy your chances? Don't worry. You will be judged fairly. I'll be weighing only your actions, the things that you actually did, and I'll give you time to explain them. If I can, I'll let you make up for them then and there. It'll be painful as all hell, but it won't actually mean you have to linger in hell for ages, taking up a perfectly good bed. How did you know this was the Underworld, by the way?**

Um... I got it spoiled, let's say.

 

**Someone warned you about it?**

This guy on the boat. A prisoner. Saw him in a cage in Economy Class as I was running up to the Captain's Cabin. He said... something like 'This is a one-way trip' and 'You'll be following me to the River Styx'. I guess I made it across the Styx, 'cause I don't remember that bit. Unless that leaky old rustbucket _was_ Charon's ferry. It always did kinda feel like it.

 

**Do you remember him saying anything else?**

He said I have a cursed destiny. Something about me being doomed to lose everyone I care about, over and over again. … That's not true, is it?

 

**As if I would spoil your destiny for you. Who was the man that told you this, Garian?**

His name was Musashi. Musashi Morganson.

 

**Does he often know about things like this?**

Yeah, he's got a bit of a reputation for knowing things he shouldn't. He dabbles in the occult. Some kind of prohibited ninja clan, even the Rajeens won't give him asylum. He's a nasty piece of work but Jailer's Island is a little extreme for him. It isn't like he can break out of a mainland maximum security prison. The Agency knows it's not just his crimes that got him to the Island. People who know things have gone to Jailer's Island for shoplifting before now.

 

**What else can you tell me about people who know things?**

Hell, there's such a scare about latent psychics these days, I worry that I'll get sent there myself for having weird dreams.

 

**That isn't what I mean, Garian, although you should tell me about the dreams. Now tell me more about Musashi Morganson.**

Um, what else is there to know? I was the one who arrested him, so he hates me, and if he was ever released he'd probably hunt me down and kill me. Except he's probably dead now. If Bilan didn't get him, he's probably drowned in that cage. Nasty way to go.

 

**Do you feel responsible for the death of Musashi?**

I suppose he wouldn't have been in that cage on that boat if it wasn't for me.

 

**Garian, do you remember anything about the day you killed Musashi Morganson?**

I don't know what you mean! I just told you, he's still in the cage!

 

**Are sure you don't remember? Think hard, Garian. It's important that you remember all your sins if you want to expiate them. It can't be that hard to remember, it only happened today.**

Geez, you sure sound like Jack when you harp on about nonsense. The only thing that happened today was that I got woken up by an alarm and an annoying bird, then I ran around a sinking ship like a moron, then I...

 

**Why are you stopping? Did you remember something important?**

No, I can't remember that bit at all. It keeps going blurry.

 

**Blurry how?**

You know when you don't remember whether something happened at all? I mean, I did have a really vivid dream last night and now I can't remember which things happened in the dream and which happened afterward...

 

**Did something happen in the dream to do with Musashi?**

Well, a lot of the things that happened when I woke up were also in the dream... I get these dreams sometimes, I worry about what happens when the Agency find out.... oh god, you don't think this whole thing on the boat was a set-up, do you?

 

**I have no idea. I'm a ghost, not a Government official. Did you see Musashi in the dream?**

He said he knew he was going to die, whether or not he made it to the Island. I thought he was talking about the rumour that the Warden executes people without authorisation, but...

 

**How does Musashi really die?**

It was me, in the dream. I killed him with my own sword.

 

**Yes, you did. At least twice.**

What do you mean, at least twice? Besides, there was a good reason! He was already possessed by Bilan, and he had taken a girl hostage... I think...

 

**You're still not remembering right. You have to believe that what you remember is what really happened, and not rearrange it so that it makes sense, or you're just fooling yourself. It doesn't make any sense. Now, what can you tell me about other people who know what happened on that boat?**

 


	2. Chapter 2

 

  1. 'T _here is no reason for you to live. You have always been alone... and even now, you are by yourself.'_




 

**What can you tell me about Indigo McNamara?**

He's a famous assassin, I think. Some other bounty hunter's mark from years ago. These are questions you're better off asking Jack, you know.

 

**Trust me, you don't want Jack following you everywhere and knowing all your affairs. There has to be at least one place in this world where you can find things out for yourself, especially in a crisis like this.**

What crisis?

 

**I'll tell you later. Even though we're a bit pushed for time, there's no way you could understand when you can't even remember who all the people involved are.**

I'm sorry, but Indigo is really not my business. He'd probably still be on the Island if I actually got there alive. Unless the Warden's randomly executed him too.

 

**We'll talk about the Warden later. Do you remember Indigo being on the Island? In your dreams, maybe.**

I think I got into a fight with him as well. It turned bad. He was going to kill me, so I had to get rid of him first. I have dreams about killing people, okay? I get into a lot of nasty fights, it's what Bounty Hunters do. I try and tell myself it's justified, seeing as most of the people I fight are complete...

 

**Do you remember Indigo saying anything in the fight?**

He said... I think he said 'we'll fight later, but not now'. And he let me go past him the first time. He even gave me a weapon, because I didn't have one.

 

**When did you have the fight, then?**

I don't remember. Quite a lot later on. But I don't remember the time passing. I went through the prison, then when I came back from the other direction, I had to fight him. But I didn't recognise him. It was like I hadn't seen him before. He just attacked me.

 

**You're sure you don't remember when it happened? Did he say anything else to you when he attacked you?**

He was just saying nonsense, like he had mistaken me for someone else who knew what I was talking about. He called me an impostor. 'Dark Savior impostor', that was it.

 

**And who is the Dark Savior?**

I don't know! Geez, everyone knows what's going on around here except me!

 

**Who do you think he mistook you for?**

Bilan, I guess? I don't remember Bilan being there, so maybe he thought I was Bilan in disguise...

 

**Interesting. Why do you think Bilan wasn't there?**

Because it's my dream, and that's what happens a lot in my dream. I mistake people for Bilan, and I kill them, or they do the same thing back to me. I... guess I never got over Lance's death. It was stupid and it shouldn't have happened. Hey... is that what this is about? Are you judging me for Lance's murder? Because I... I really don't have anything to say in my defence... except that I would have thought that Bilan killing me was punishment enough...

 

**That isn't how it works. If it did, what would happen to Bilan for killing you? He has no authority to be killing people either. If karma kills him as well, where would it end?**

I don't think Bilan's all that aware of what he's doing...

 

**You really think Bilan is an animal? Even though he can disguise himself as others and turn people against each other?**

It's just a trick, like a chameleon. He's a cunning predator but he's not a person. He never does anything except kill and eat.

 

**Interesting, but we'll get back to Bilan. Why do you think Indigo knows so much about Bilan and about you? Why do you think he was in your dream, talking to you as if he knew you, when you have never met him before?**

I did hear a rumour around the Agency that he was another of the psychics. If he got into someone's head at the Agency... or maybe he's working with Musashi... there's a huge black market problem at the moment, and I heard there were organised crime gangs at the prison. I bet they have a guy inside the Agency, anyway...

 

**You're still blaming the Agency and crime gangs for what happened to you on that Island?**

What do you mean, 'on that Island'? It was a dream! How can I be on the Island if I died on the boat?

 

**Why do you think you were called an impostor in your own dream? Who is the real one, if you're the impostor?**

Well, if I was Bilan in disguise...

 

**The real Garian would be dead, so there would nobody to 'impose' on.**

Well, I _am_ dead... wait, are you trying to tell me I really am possessed by Bilan?

 

**Your soul wouldn't be here if that was the case. Actually, you would still be alive by now. Bilan doesn't completely kill people when he needs their bodies for possession.**

This might be a dream, and I'm really going around killing people for Bilan. I might have gone crazy to block it out.

 

**Do you really think you are in a dream right now?**

It's no crazier than the other dreams you keep making me remember.

 

**Then why don't you believe the other dreams are real?**

I don't think any of them are real.

 

**Then why aren't you waking up?**

I'm trying. It isn't working.

 

**Oh, that doesn't mean you have to give up altogether. It might just not be working yet. You've been making a lot of progress, even though you haven't seen the end.**

I thought you were supposed to be judging my soul, not encouraging me to go mad.

 

**I'm just raising the possibility that maybe all the things you saw yourself doing in the dreams might be things you really did, and that your soul is accountable for. We won't get anywhere if you keep denying your sins.**

Oh, so now you're saying all the dreams are real?

 

**Equally false, equally true. It's the same, when you can't find a way out of it.**

A way out? I can't even get it go away by dying!

 

**Now you're beginning to sound more like yourself.**

What's that supposed to mean?

 

**Garian, can you tell me something else about people you know who often have dreams?**


	3. Chapter 3

3\. _'My island has been destroyed... my dreams have been shattered... it's all your fault... had it not been for you...'_

 

**What can you tell me about the Warden of Jailer's Island?**

I've heard bad things about that guy. That he goes beyond just being a hard-liner. That the prisoners just go missing off the records sometimes. That you don't return from Jailer's Island.

 

**Has anyone ever returned from the Island?**

Well, the place is supposed to be for the sort of people who aren't ever getting out of prison anyway...

 

**I didn't say has anyone ever finished their prison sentence there. I said, have any people, of any kind, ever gone to that Island and come back again?**

Don't be stupid, of course they have! The prison staff have normal lives, and sailors bring supplies in and out, and the prisoners have families who visit them...

 

**When have you ever seen anyone leave?**

I haven't been yet! Oh... you mean in the dreams? Well, I don't think it's ever been that straightforward in the dreams. You know how dreams miss bits out, like how you ended up where you are in the first place. I don't really remember leaving. I don't remember seeing others arrive or leave. I remember arriving on the boat, but not what I was doing before I was on the boat.

 

**Do you really think it's just that the dreams missed those parts out? You weren't thinking actively about it at all – about who arrived and left, and when?**

I think I did sometimes. I was worried because there was a lockdown and nobody was allowed to leave, but then the boat left again. The boat only comes once a year.

 

**Did you see the boat arrive or leave?**

Well, I saw my boat arrive and leave, but I guess the visitors didn't arrive on the prison escort ship.

 

**Did you ever see anyone actually arrive or leave, or any boats apart from your own?**

There were this weird little submarines...

 

**Earlier you said that you had lost track of where Bilan arrived or left at some point.**

It's not that I was tracking him and then lost him. I just don't remember him ever being here, now that I look back, but I don't remember him being dead at that point. I get a bit paranoid about forgetting where Bilan is.

 

**Do you remember Warden Kurtliegen locking down the Island?**

Yes, it was because we didn't know where Bilan had gone.

 

**How do you think he already had the entire Island locked down, and had ordered the boats to leave?**

The prison is fully automated, everything works really efficiently. Except for the escort ship. And the visitors had already been there for a while, I think they get to stay for a while, and their return boat hadn't turned up yet. They might have been killed by Bilan before their boat arrived.

 

**Do you think the Warden's motivations were really that good? You don't seem to have a good opinion of him.**

I don't trust him at all. I remember him being a dangerous man, when I met him.

 

**When did you meet him?**

I spoke to him over the ship's radio... Oh, he was in my dream too. He was doing some very weird things. Forcing people to work down a mine full of glowing green rocks. Throwing people in tanks full of green goo.

 

**Did you get into a fight?**

I think I got into several. I really didn't like him in the dreams.

 

**Did you end up killing him?**

I think I may have, in one of the dreams. He was completely crazy.

 

**Do you remember anything about his motives, apart from insanity?**

He wanted power, I think. A lot more power than just over the prison. He was doing some kind of scientific experiment as well.

 

**What was the experiment about?**

One of the people that were thrown into the tank... something happened to them... they turned into something... did they turn into Bilan?

 

**Why do you remember someone turning into Bilan?**

Bilan was in the lab... then there were a lot of people dying... the green goo from the tank was everywhere... the green goo sort of looked like the trail Bilan leaves behind...

 

**What was the Warden doing at the time?**

He had gone down into the mine. Bilan was following him. I went down after Bilan. Then there was another fight, and I... I don't remember what happened then...

 

**Did you kill the Warden?**

I don't remember. I sort of remember him dying. But I remember seeing him alive after the battle.

 

**What did he say to you?**

He said... he was sorry. He was sorry that everything had turned into such a mess. That he just wanted everything to go back to normal.

 

**How long has it been since anything on that Island was normal?**

I think he meant he didn't want Bilan to tear the place apart and kill everyone on the Island.

 

**Are you sure that's what he meant?**

Maybe he was admitting that he should have been trying a little harder to be a decent Warden, and not trying to be everything else except the Warden.

 

**Why was he so desperate for order, all of a sudden?**

Because he couldn't stay in control of everything when it was falling apart around him.

 

**When will this Island fall apart, and what will happen next?**

It already did. Several times.

 

**That's not what I meant. When will all of it fall apart.**

Dreams usually fall apart when you wake up. It's just how they are.

 

**How long has the dreamer gone on without waking up?**

I can't really tell. I keep dreaming I've woken up.

 

**What if the dreamer isn't you?**

Would that make me part of a dream? Are you saying I'm going to vanish when someone wakes up? Don't screw around with my head – you don't feel pain in a dream, and I remember what Bilan's claws felt like!

 

**I'm sorry. Maybe that possibility wasn't something you could consider yet. Tell me this – the Warden has his own dream, of the order he wants to bring to this Island – who else do you know that has dreams?**

 


	4. Chapter 4

4\. _'Garian! What are you doing here?'_

 

**Do you remember a man called Bruno?**

I don't know anyone called Bruno.

 

**Are you sure you don't remember him? He was in your dream. You were in his, as well. He was a white tiger man, the head of one of the organised crime rings you were talking about.**

I'm not sure I'm comfortable with big tiger guys in prison dreaming about me.

 

**You know what sort of dream I mean. He had seen a little of what was going to happen on the Island. Quite a few people had. Usually it was just small parts, not the whole story, maybe bits that they personally were involved in.**

I don't know what you mean, what's going to happen 'on the Island'. Nothing can happen to me there. I'm dead.

 

**Yes, it is an unusual predicament you've found yourself in. You see, none of the possibilities included you being permanently unable to reach the Island. Every other situation in which you died, it should not have continued.**

Well, you said yourself there was an afterlife...

 

**It means you should never have seen that afterlife. You should have woken up.**

I already told you I can't dream about pain this vivid.

 

**But you admit that you have had vivid dreams about pain and death before.**

Yes, so do most people, especially bounty hunters. You dream about work when you don't have a life outside it.

 

**To have no life outside pain and death must be lonely.**

It isn't like I don't have any friends, whatever the critics say.

 

**Do you consider Bruno a friend?**

I don't remember any Bruno. I think he was a friend in the dream. I remember talking to him, helping him out, and getting advice from him. He didn't seem all that bad for a gangster. Another case of people who shouldn't really be on that Island, I guess...

 

**So why did you kill him?**

I don't remember killing him in any of the dreams. In some of the dreams, he died to Bilan. Was that my fault?

 

**You're not remembering all the dreams. You definitely killed him once. It was a fairly obscure iteration, another of the ones that weren't really supposed to happen.**

What's an iteration?

 

**A possible way that it could have happened.**

I don't kill my friends, okay?

 

**You know as well as I do that's not true.**

You're saying it was the same as with Lance? How many times do I have to dream about that happening?

 

**How many times do you remember it happening?**

I don't kow, okay? I dream about it a lot. I can't get over the guilt.

 

**Do you remember a particular time when it happened in your dreams?**

They all blur into one sometimes... Bilan... Lance... myself...

 

**Do you remember more about the time you fought yourself?**

I'm not suicidal, okay?

 

**I'm not talking about committing suicide, Garian. How many times has yourself been an enemy for you to fight?**

I don't know. How would I even tell the difference between different ones? I always look like me.

 

**Do you remember an incident with a child?**

Now you're just being mean.

 

**It was an important question. Do you remember failing to save someone – letting go of someone when they were falling?**

There was a girl... no, she let go on purpose. Bit my freaking hand. But there was another time... I don't remember that too clearly... she was on a chair... and then there was a prisoner, some lizard guy I was trying to save... I dropped him, and... That's it! That's when Bruno attacked me! I was supposed to rescue his friend, but he was too badly wounded and I had to carry him, but I couldn't carry him and fight, so he ended up dying... Bruno thought I'd done it on purpose. I didn't want to fight, but he had me in a corner and he was going to kill me. I'm so sorry...

 

**It's okay, I always hated him anyway. Do you remember what happened next?**

Bilan came in and killed everyone.

 

**Where did Bilan come from?**

I don't know. I think Bruno might have been possessed by Bilan, or the other prisoner was. I look at everyone and I see Bilan these days. Hey... JJ?

 

**Hm?**

Is that what this is about? Is this all my punishment for Lance's death? Some kind of purgatory I have to go through? Or have I finally flipped, and I'm hallucinating all this?

 

**How do you know you're not on trial for Bilan's murder?**

That would be stupid.

 

**Why would it? Because Bilan kills others? I've already told you it isn't a justification in this court.**

But I haven't killed Bilan yet.

 

**You don't remember killing Bilan?**

Only in these dreams. You can't blame me for who I kill in a dream. These dreams are all my punishments. You can't punish me and then blame me for what happens as a result.

 

 **But you're blaming yourself, over and over again**.

Only for Lance's death. If I could kill Bilan over and over again, like I see myself killing Lance, I would do so.

 

**Because you want to avenge his death? Or get rid of your guilt?**

Because he just keeps coming back if you don't spend your whole life killing him.

 

**Hey, Garian...**

What?

 

**Earlier on, you called me 'JJ'. Do you even know who 'JJ' is?**

I have no idea. Didn't you say it was your name?

 

**I think you're starting to remember a little more...**


	5. Chapter 5

5\. _'Did you ever... think... I might... have... a mind? I love... I love...'_

 

**Do you actually know anything about Bilan?**

I know more than most people. I've fought him more times than anyone else and I've even won a battle against him. At least, I thought I had.

 

**What makes you unsure?**

I thought I had captured him, but I'm starting to wonder now if he wasn't just going along of his own accord. He wasn't really putting up much resistance. Not compared to the strength he fought me with during that last battle. You know, the one where I...

 

**But he had just fed before that battle.**

You're right, he becomes stronger after he feeds on someone's life energy. He must have been weak when he got out. He didn't try and possess anyone to sneak around, he just went straight to killing and feeding.

 

**Bilan uses up his strength when he possesses someone?**

When he's actually got them under his control and is disguised as them, yes. Once he finishes, he eats their life energy straight away, and kills them.

 

**Why do you think that is?**

I guess he must have to put some of his own life energy back into them, so that he can control them directly. They become stronger as well, as strong as Bilan.

 

**Do you think they're still alive when this happens? Are they aware of what's happening to them?**

It's very hard to keep someone alive who has even been possessed by Bilan for five minutes, but it has been done. Some of them were even able to fight it for a while. One guy managed to kill himself to escape Bilan's control. It generally isn't pretty, what happens to them.

 

**Do anyone of them ever experience an understanding of Bilan's thoughts or motives?**

I don't think so. He just makes them do things, mostly bad things. I still don't think he has any higher thoughts. He only ever tries to kill and eat.

 

**What is the definition of higher thoughts?**

Geez, I dunno, I'm not a philosopher. Learning, I guess. Having a sense of self.

 

**Bilan doesn't learn?**

He learns people's fighting style, like... Ah, I think that's just him mimicking people, or maybe even absorbing their DNA.

 

**Like what?**

I was going to say 'like me'. It's an automated thing. I mean, I control when it happens, but I don't actually know the captive's fighting styles. It's like I have them stored, and I can turn them on and off.

 

**Do you think that's how Bilan's powers work?**

I doubt it's the same. For one thing, I need Jack to be able to use my powers. I don't think Bilan could persuade Jack to let him use his database. Half the time, I can't persuade Jack to help me, and we work for the same Agency!

 

**How do you think Bilan can capture others without using a device like yours?**

You're asking me how Bilan works. I dunno. Maybe if I understood him better... I wouldn't have died to him!

 

**Why did you really not want to finish your train of thought?**

I also didn't want to compare myself to Bilan, okay?

 

**Have you been afraid of thinking that you are like Bilan for a while?**

Bounty Hunters aren't popular, you know, people are scared of us, even though we keep them safe from the worst criminals. We get called a lot of bad names...

 

**Have you been afraid that you think of yourself as like Bilan?**

Why would I think that? I don't just kill everyone I see!

 

**Even when you think that they're really Bilan?**

That's not my fault! Nobody can tell when someone's possessed by Bilan! For all I know, I could be possessed by Bilan! Is that what this is about? Am I out there somewhere, under Bilan's control, killing all these people?

 

**Calm down. You are not 'out there'. You are here. Now, we will change the subject, but you should think about what I said. Now, is there anything else you don't understand about Bilan?**

Why he let himself be captured and put on a prison boat, then broke out, killed everyone and went to the prison anyway. No, actually, I think he put himself where there were so many people just so he could eat them all when he was hungry. Or to piss me off. But I don't understand why he wanted to go to Jailer's Island so badly.

 

**How do you know he went to Jailer's Island?**

I saw him jump off the... oh shit... I couldn't have remembered that if I died on that boat, could I? What the fuck is going on?

 

**You're starting to remember a little more. Okay, Garian, I want you to try and remember why Bilan went to the Island. This is something you know the answer to.**

More food in an enclosed space?

 

**What is making you think Bilan is after food?**

He's always stronger, whenever I meet him. I don't think it's just me being off my guard. I wasn't off my guard. I think he was a lot stronger when I fought him in the cabin just now, and that's why I lost that time.

 

**So, he is trying to gain strength?**

I just said he can evolve when he absorbs people's powers. I think it doesn't go away. I think he's getting permanently stronger and stronger.

 

**So, he is going through some kind of metamorphosis?**

I guess so. That's why he needs to die. You need to send me back. I need to kill him, or this is going to end really badly for the entire world.

 

**Why is it yourself who needs to fight Bilan?**

I'm the only one with experience of fighting him! Who's survived for any length of time, I mean!

 

**But you died to him.**

I said 'for any length of time'.

 

**I can't send you back, Garian. Especially not when you still haven't answered my questions honestly. I need you to understand what Bilan is doing on Jailer's Island, and what you personally have to do with it. We're going to keep on with this until you do, and you're going to see more of the people who you've killed. Now, Garian, have you ever heard of DeBose Schumizer?**


	6. Chapter 6

6\. _'What's the matter? You don't know who I am, do you? But I do know you so very well... Including the other that has been hiding...'_

 

I've heard of him. Very dangerous guy. He was a Government official. He was in line to be Warden of Jailer's Island, before they found out just how much he was trying to betray his country. The plans he had for Jailer's Island were pretty bad as well. He was an Agency case from way back before I made A-class. Why, is he involved in this too?

 

**Are you sure he's doing life?**

Not really. We don't usually check up on old clients. We're not even supposed to escort prisoners. I was just worried that they didn't have the facilities to transport something like Bilan. I guess I was right. Not that I was lot of use...

 

**What else is something like Bilan?**

Carbon Freeze prisoners. Jailer's Island has a Carbon Freeze chamber, but they don't have any way of properly escorting the sort of prisoners that you have to Carbon Freeze. The only reason you would Carbon Freeze a prisoner is if it was impossible to execute them. If someone is that dangerous that they can't be killed, there's no way to transport them on a normal boat.

 

Are there many prisoners in Carbon Freeze on Jailer's Island at the moment?

There are never many Carbon Freeze prisoners. Jailer's Island have almost all of them, and there are only five.

 

**Can you name them all?**

Sean and Meg Lansky, Blade... crap...

 

**You can't remember the other two?**

I swear there were five, but I don't remember the other two... maybe I counted Bilan by accident, even though he's not gonna end up in a Carbon Freeze chamber now. Can you even Carbon Freeze Bilan anyway?

 

**Where did you see the other two?**

I don't know... how the hell do I know so much about Carbon Freeze prisoners? The Agency don't release these stats to Bounty Hunters! I bet Jack told me... he's always getting me involved in things I shouldn't be...

 

**When was the last time you saw a Carbon Freeze chamber?**

I visited one on a training course once... they use some of the same technology in Capture fields, you know!

 

**When did you last get a closer look?**

What kind of a question is that?

 

**Who was it that called you a 'Dark Savior impostor'?**

I don't know... it wasn't Indigo. I remember thinking that I'd heard it before, when Indigo said it to me. I was scared that everyone was talking about it. It was like a cult.

 

**What else was weird on that day?**

Jack was knowing everything about the situation as well. Hey, you don't think he's the Dark Savior, do you? I wouldn't put it past him...

 

**Who was Jack talking to?**

Kaiser. That's right... Kaiser's data memory service had stopped working. That was the weirdest thing that happened. It wasn't that the birds were too in control of everything. It's that they had lost control of the situation. It was all falling apart, and Kaiser couldn't do a damn thing, and Jack...

 

**What was Jack doing that was odd for him?**

He wasn't there. Well, he was hovering over my shoulder like he always is. Except now. Which I still think is weird. But there were places I thought he should be, that it made sense for him to be, and he wasn't. And he couldn't save me. I remember now. I was dying, time was running out, and he couldn't save me. He never just fails to save me.

 

**He didn't save you when you were killed by Bilan.**

He doesn't join in fights. Snakebirds aren't allowed to risk their own butts. It's the strictest rule in the Agency. I don't know why. Maybe they're endangered. I mean, I can't imagine Jack being endangered, but...

 

**If Jack couldn't do anything when all this was going on – when everyone was talking about the 'Dark Savior'... how could he have been the Dark Savior?**

I guess that makes sense. Okay, it wasn't Jack or Kaiser. Maybe it was Regina.

 

**Do you remember anything about DeBose?**

He was on the Island. In the dreams. I remember now. I think he was leading the crime gangs.

 

**That's sort of right. But do you remember seeing him?**

I think he was there when everything fell apart. He was going to kill my friends. I had to kill him first. He was the one who first said those words: Dark Savior.

 

**Do you remember seeing him at any other time?**

Yes, but it's not clear... like it was one of those parts of the dream that don't make any sense... I don't think I was supposed to have seen him.

 

**You said yourself that a lot of weird things were happening on that Island.**

I remember now! I remember why Jack told me about the unauthorised executions. I didn't read it in the news. He was arguing with the Warden about it. He had executed DeBose. But... I was talking to him! I remember his words! I remember killing him! Are people coming back from the dead, now?

 

**Nobody just comes back from the dead. He was something else other than dead.**

That's right, he was Carbon Frozen! The Warden admitted he couldn't execute DeBose, that he turned out to be a Carbon Freeze class prisoner. But I thought Carbon Freeze was something that killed you!

 

**It wasn't just DeBose that was coming back from Carbon Freeze then. All the Carbon Freeze prisoners were running around the Island, causing a mess. A lot of people thought that the dead were coming back to life, so no wonder people were in a religious mood.**

Hey, JJ...?

 

**Yes?**

If people really don't come back to life, does that mean I'll never leave here? What the fuck is the point of me being here? I mean, I prefer the nice little chat to not existing at all, but...

 

**The 'little chat' is vitally important. I have to piece together exactly what happened while we still have a chance. This place only exists because you died when you weren't supposed to, and it's given us a chance to sit back from what's happening a little. Sooner or later, someone will find out what we're up to.**

Who are 'they'?

 

**It won't mean anything to you yet. Now, tell me what you know about the other Carbon Freeze prisoners. Who is Blade?**


	7. Chapter 7

7\. 'THE PERFECT EVIL IS THE PERFECT APATHY _...'_

 

Blade the Ultimate Killing Machine? Isn't he a robot or something? Jack told me all about him. Built by the Lavians during the war, went out of control and killed hundreds on both sides, ran off somewhere, started killing civilians... it took the whole Agency to get him into a Capture field! That was way before I was even born, though...

 

**Have you ever met him?**

I think he was one of the Carbon Freeze prisoners that escaped. I didn't realise he was on the Island, but I knew he had to have been in Carbon Freeze. He'd be impossible to keep in a normal prison and nobody knows how to deactivate him permanently. I'm not sure how Carbon Freeze actually works on him. I'd have thought he'd still be switched on, and just break out of the ice. I don't really know how anything works with Blade, though. I know less about him than Bilan. I didn't even think you could Capture robots.

 

**Why would you think you wouldn't be able to Capture robots?**

To be honest, I don't really know how the Capture system works, but I think they're too different to anything else that Capture works on. They don't have DNA to store in the system. They don't think for themselves, so you can't record how they would think, what strategies they would use in battle. They don't have inner narratives of their own, so you can't record any meaningful data about their personal timeline. It'd be like trying to Capture my sword.

 

**Is a robot just a tool, then?**

Blade is the most advanced robot ever created, but I don't think he could be a self-aware AI. Nobody has ever been able to create that kind of technology. It would change how the entire world works.

 

**But he is in prison, very far away from the rest of the world. He might just not have been found about.**

He doesn't act intelligent, anyway. He just kills everything he comes into contact with.

 

**A person who chooses to do nothing but kill isn't intelligent either?**

Is that supposed to be a personal comment?

 

**I was just asking. You've met a lot of serial killers. Do you not consider any of them to be people?**

Well, they don't have the same rights, not once they've thrown them away. Anyway, serial killers have a reason to kill. Blade is more like a weapon than a person.

 

**Do you know for certain he has no motivation to kill?**

Nobody's ever been able to get an intelligent response out of him.

 

**He's not even the same life form as you, and only speaks a dead dialect of Lavian. How would you understand him?**

Are you suggesting I should reason with the third most prolific serial killer in the world? That I should sympathise with him?

 

**I'm just saying that you have to think in a less limited way if you are going to understand what is happening to you. Now, who do you think might be able to communicate with Blade?**

I remember there being these cybernetic bear things...

 

**Those are slightly less intelligent than a bear. But there are other people who are very closely in contact with Blade's consciousness now, if he has one. Those who share the same dream.**

More dreams... is anyone on that Island not having some kind of freaky dream?

 

**There is an urban myth about Carbon Freeze. At least, the Rajeen Government says it is a myth. Do you know what I am talking about?**

You mean the theory that Carbon Freeze prisoners are still alive. That they're aware of what's going on around them, and it's really just driving them even more insane and even more violent. That they're being cryogenically preserved so they will live even longer than other humans, and they'll just have to be let out as soon as the machine fails.

 

**Do you know the specific words that describe what is happening in their minds?**

'An eternal nightmare'. That they're trapped in their own inner world, in their dreams.

 

**Say the theory was true - how do you think they feel, when they're trapped like that?**

I don't think anyone eligible for Carbon Freeze thinks like a normal person in the first place.

 

**How would you feel if it was you?**

Me? Confused as hell, at first, like I am. Then I'd just be desperate to get out. I'd just try and get out, whatever the cost. By then, I wouldn't care what I had to do. And I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between dream and reality anyway.

 

**Where does that difference lie?**

If you'd asked me that on a normal day, I'd probably give you some flippant answer. On days like this, I really can't tell any more. I'm not sure I care.

 

**It really is something you should care about, Garian. Not so you can find reality and go back to it and have a normal life, either.**

Because my sins can't be forgiven?

 

**Because that isn't an option for any of us any more, guilty or innocent. Because we've gone and walked past the big sign that says 'abandon hope all ye who enter here'.**

Isn't that supposed to be in Hell? I thought you said I wouldn't be sent to Hell!

 

**Who said this is the entrance poll? You've already admitted that you've been inside the world where the Carbon Freeze prisoners broke out. Where the mad gods of their own private worlds got to inflict their fantasies on a physical world. That sounds like Hell to me. Tell me, do you know the name of the Angel of Death?**

 


	8. Chapter 8

_8\. 'Have I done wrong? The weak have absolutely no reason to live. If anything, I did them a favour by killing them all!'_

 

**That's right, Rafael. She is already on the Island. Do you know who I am talking about?**

… Give me a clue, is it a snakebird?

 

**Megan Lansky of the Lansky twins is also named 'Meg Rafael Lansky'.**

I didn't know that. I've heard all about her, though. The Lansky twins. They're even more dangerous than Blade. They used to be Agency Bounty Hunters, S-Class, even higher up than me. It's said they killed their Snakebird while they were escaping from the Agency. I knew they were into Occult shit, but I didn't know they thought they were Devils.

 

**It isn't Meg that calls herself that. She does things to the world around her. Not just killing, although she does a lot of that too, but she is also trying to shape this world to her desires. I think she would destroy this world, if she had a chance.**

Which world are we talking about again?

 

 **Good, you're learning. It's a good job she is on this Island, even though she is going to destroy it. If she wasn't contained here, where she can't really affect the outside world, the damage would spread**.

Can't she just leave? I mean, Bilan can leave, and she's so powerful, I think I would be less scared of her if she was infected by Bilan than if she attacked me straight out!

 

**What makes you so sure Bilan can leave?**

Well, it happened, didn't it?

 

**When did it happen?**

I remember it... oh shit... I'm doing it again... JJ, I can't tell the difference between my memories of the dreams and what really happened any more...

 

**It's okay. Just try and remember who you are and what's happening, right here and right now. It's important to remember the other things, but they were dreams. They happened to another Garian who you were dreaming about.**

JJ... I'm in Carbon Freeze, aren't I?

 

**What makes you think that?**

This is exactly what you described. I can't tell fantasy from reality. I keep remembering that I killed people. I'm getting paranoid that I'm not real, that everyone's against me. I'm crazy. If I've been on that Island and I got into a fight with the Warden... he Carbon Freezes people he's not supposed to, so he wouldn't think twice about doing it to me. And I was on that Island when all the Carbon Freeze prisoners escaped, and Hell broke lose... You told me I was in Hell. That's what you meant, isn't it?

 

**I also told you that there was a possibility of leaving. Please calm down, Garian. I can't keep this place open if your thoughts are so violent. Your mind is shouting loud enough for everything that wants us shut down to hear exactly where we are.**

What happens to me if I leave here?

 

**You go back to where you're supposed to be. Believe me, you wouldn't want that. There won't be another chance to escape.**

Escape from what – Carbon Freeze? Admit it, I'm in Carbon Freeze, aren't I? I remember! I remember seeing my own...

 

**What did you see?**

I saw my own face in Carbon Freeze! What the fuck? That can't be possible!

 

**Then you must have been on the outside, looking in.**

But that makes even less sense! Am I in Carbon Freeze or not? How can it be me and not be me at the same time? I can't be in two places at once, no matter how many weird things are happening on that island!

 

**Garian, I am going to admit that you have, at one point in this timeline I am discussing with you, been Carbon Frozen. Before I can discuss that, I need to know about the time when you saw Bilan leave the Island.**

This is kind of more immediately important to me, thank you very much!

 

**Believe me, it is not. What you just described was a version of events that must never happen. It is a forbidden event. Do you understand? I was aware that the possibility of it happening had been unlocked, but not that an observer had been there to collapse its quantum state.**

Don't talk like Jack at me! Tell me what's happening to me!

 

**Garian, the sequence of events in which Bilan can leave the Island is one in which the infinite loop, the thing that is preventing certain elements from leaving the Island and interacting with the outside world, is broken. All the bad things that are happening on this Island, the ones that I believe I can resolve, will spread to the outside world. It will mean the end of the world that Meg is trying to bring about, although it probably has nothing to do with Meg.**

Can't Bilan get out anyway, if I'm dead? What's to stop him?

 

**The fact that he has set foot on the Island.**

Have I... have I set foot on the Island as well? In a world that actually happened, I mean?

 

**If Bilan really left the Island, then the loop is already unravelling. Too much has strain has been placed on it. We need to move quickly.**

Don't just ignore me!

 

**Garian, just tell me one more thing, then I swear I'll answer your question truthfully. When you saw Bilan leave the Island... in your version of that particular timeline... whose face was the last you saw? Who did you kill, and who killed you?**

Accusing me of things again... well, if it means I get out of here... I think it was... oh shit... that can't be right...

 

**Who was it, Garian?**

The last person I saw, the one who killed me... it was my girlfriend's sister. And I had just killed my girlfriend.

 

**Tracy. That makes a certain amount of sense. The other person who knows more than they ought to.**

JJ, I killed my girlfriend! No wonder I was Carbon Frozen! My soul is beyond redemption. You might as well forget me...

 

**No, Garian, that isn't why you were Carbon Frozen. And there would be much better reasons right now.**


	9. Chapter 9

9\. _'T_ _his world exists solely to make Meg and me happy. Everything else must perish. Do you understand?_ '

 

**Think about it. People go to prison for murdering those close to them a lot, and they're usually executed. Nobody ends up in Carbon Freeze over it. It's just not that spectacular, and it doesn't indicate that it would be difficult to kill them. You're a very dangerous man, a high-ranking Bounty Hunter, but the only rogue Bounty Hunters in Carbon Freeze are the next level up from you.**

There aren't really enough rogue Bounty Hunters to say... that's why we have Snakebirds... I think... there's probably a more sinister reason behind the Snakebirds...

 

**You've said before that the Capture system only works if a Snakebird is present. Is it possible that the Agency always supplies a Snakebird because so many facilities such as the Capture system only work when a Snakebird is present?**

Stop defending the Snakebirds! You don't know what they're like!

 

**I wasn't defending them. Think hard. You've said that Carbon Freeze uses the same sort of technology as Capture fields.**

That's what I was told. It makes sense. Most of the things in Carbon Freeze couldn't be held just by freezing all their cells, and the Agency has to keep track of them constantly, using Data Memory – the same Data Memory that they use to keep tabs on their Bounty Hunters.

 

**Whose Capture Field do you think they are under?**

It's not exactly like a Capture Field. There isn't a person they are actively controlled by. The other end of the field probably gets kept around a Snakebird's neck or in a locked briefcase somewhere. Or it doesn't even have the facility to be attached to someone – it's a stripped-down version that's only for containment.

 

**Are the people inside the Capture Field linked to each other?**

Hell, no, that'd be a stupid idea! They'll conspire to escape!

 

**If there's nobody at the other end, and the captives aren't linked to each other, how is it a Capture Field? There would be no way of recording any meaningful data. All the data in the Capture Field is about who captured them, parameters for controlling them, the effects that different actions will have on their own timelines and that of the captor, and about relative power levels and strategies and how to physiologically adjust yourself.**

You seem to know an awful damn lot about it!

 

**I must confess I am keeping from you a lot about myself. I wish to remain simply a voice that you talk to that means nothing to you personally, just someone who is jotting it all down and asking relevant questions, as I've always been. I'm not JJ, but JJ was so insignificant in the grand scheme of things that I was hoping you'd forget who he was.**

You sound like a spy to me... what do you mean, 'always been'?

 

**If the Carbon Freeze prisoners were all inside a giant Capture Field – and most of them already in another Capture field already, at least four of them probably being on the other end of a Capture field a few times – what do you think that would do?**

Make a huge mess. Don't evade my question!

 

**The contents of a Capture field cannot be affected by anything in the outside world. What do you think would happen if a huge area was blanket-Captured?**

Capture fields aren't physical things. It wouldn't keep people imprisoned. It would mean they couldn't disobey orders from people who tell them to stay where they are, but clearly that isn't happening here.

 

**A Capture field doesn't affect the mind. You said yourself that robots and animals could be Captured.**

You said Blade was a sentient AI!

 

**No, I asked you if he was. A Capture field isn't what you think it is. It is neither mental nor physical. It is temporal. Actually, it works on the local timeline. The 'mind effects' are the same as a dream's effect on one's sense of inner narrative. It can be applied to a global timeline too, but the effects on the entire population of the planet would be catastrophic. Even using it without specifics on a wide area, closed off from the outside world, is too dangerous. While Carbon Freeze prisoners need to be kept fully away from the outside world, they are usually the most complicated to Capture. Certain key elements are stabilising the field on Jailer's Island. Except that they've failed, it seems.**

Now you really sound like a Snakebird... hey, I've just worked something out!

 

**What is it?**

How I can see myself from the outside. If I used my own Capture field on myself.

 

**That's very close to the truth.**

I've worked something out, too. If what you're saying is true, that's why there are so many Snakebirds on this Island. They're like flying, fast-moving Capture field interfaces. And Kaiser is a Data Memory terminal, so you don't even have to fly back to HQ to record your actions.

 

**That's right.**

And I've just made you admit that you're a Snakebird, too. In fact, I think I can say with certainty that you're Kaiser. It's because of how much you know, and that you can show me images straight into my head. Also, you're admitting that you're wrong, and trying to help me, in your own twisted way. Jack wouldn't do that. He isn't as powerful as a Data Memory snakebird, anyway.

 

**Actually, Jack's just as powerful as me, but he can't do the same things as me. He's got his own, very specific job, which he's busting his feathery butt doing repeatedly right now. I'm glad you worked it out, though. It proves you understand what I'm teaching you, and now I can stop this ruse.**

You look better in black.

 

**Thank you. And for that, I'm going to admit something that might hurt your brain a little. You see, when I said you were very close to the truth... you have indeed Captured yourself at some point in your timeline. However, you personally are none of the ones that were Captured or have Captured another. In fact, you are the only one who is not inside this recursion. The reason for that, is that there is no need for you to be Captured. You were already Captured by an individual much higher up in the command tree of this huge, horribly tangled Capture field.**

And who is that?

 

**Bilan. He can use the Capture field, Garian. He can use it better than you can, because he can use it naturally, without equipment. In fact, the Agency Capture system was developed through the study of Bilan. Lavian isn't the only country with the Diary of Wouda.**

Oh, hell, no... you can't really mean...

 

**I'm sorry, Garian. You're under Bilan's possession. You've been acting under it for almost an entire day. I couldn't tell you earlier, because I knew your mind would immediately reject the idea. But now I hope you can understand what I'm saying when I tell you that Bilan isn't the worst thing happening out there, and that you might just have a chance to be saved.**


	10. Chapter 10

10\. ' _I_ _F ONLY I CAN_ _.._ _LIVE AGAIN_ _... I'_ _M SUFFERING_ _..._ _HELP ME GARIAN_ _... G_ _ARIAN_ _.._ _'_

 

No... you don't get saved from Bilan's possession, you just suffer horribly and you die!

 

**All the victims of full Bilanic possession so far have been locally destroyed, yes. It is not necessarily for data in a Capture field to exist in a physical form, so Bilan destroys the body to be more efficient. However, it takes time, as the matter is entirely recycled, not wastefully destroyed. A victim rescued before that time can occasionally be saved, if an antidote to Bilanium-triggered cell degeneration can be found.**

Are you saying you can rescue me? Like my brother was rescued? You... you had that stuff with you all along and you didn't tell me?

 

**So, you remember that as well, now. You're starting to remember the ends of your timelines. Good. No, Garian, I don't have any neutralised Bilanium on me.**

Then how are you possibly going to rescue me?

 

**I'm going to keep you alive – no, in existence, the word 'alive' no longer makes sense – until the end of the process.**

What process?

 

**Do you remember yet, the reason that Bilan came to the Island? His true goal in this world?**

He was looking for Bilanium, I think. So he could grow strong enough to change form. He turned into a larger Bilan, then spawned smaller clones of himself. Was he trying to make more Bilans? … Is he a she? Or was the thing created when Kay fell in the Bilanium...

 

**No, Garian. Well, yes, he wanted to evolve and become something larger. Once he realised it was impossible for him personally, he used the last of his energy to create spawns of himself, so that they could have their own chance. But Bilan himself was only trying to achieve full metamorphosis. Transcendence. His own version of the 'way out'.**

But he was never Carbon Frozen...

 

**You forget, Carbon Freeze is also developed from the Capture technology that Bilan possesses naturally. This drive that grips people as they enter broader and deeper levels of Capture has always existed in Bilan.**

I thought Bilan was created artificially as a weapon, anyway...

 

**That wasn't the pure form of Bilan. The genetically engineered version, the super-weapon, was created from the naturally discovered Bilan. The first Bilan was discovered when a meteor crashed to Earth. Bilan is supposed to evolve in deep space.**

It can survive in _space_ and we've been trying to freeze it?

 

**Oh, Bilan has been manipulating every single thing that has happened to anyone on either end of a Capture field or a Carbon Freeze machine. In their own environment, Bilanos have their own administrators, supervisors and directors who control the process. The reason Kurtliegen behaved particularly erratically, suddenly seeking order to a chaos he didn't even know was there, was because Bilan mistook him for a Bilano supervisor. Because the Carbon Freeze prisoners kept acting as though they were in charge of the enclosed world, Bilan later gave them full administrator access. They probably reminded him of himself. I imagine he tried to do the same thing to one of you.**

What about yourself? You're practically a flying Capture machine.

 

 

**I am not being manipulated. I am going along with what is happening. I have been aware of it for quite a while now, but I needed to make sure, and I needed to know I could get everyone into a position to properly initiate it. If I wait any longer, the entire loop will collapse and the events happening here will very rapidly eat into global quantum reality.**

Does that mean the world will end?

 

**Yes. Possibly more than just one world. For all I know, this thing can extend out into space. But I do know one thing: if Bilan fully evolves, if this series of events can reach its climax undisturbed, then it can finish and shut down.**

And what will happen to us? Won't he just turn into something that can eat the world anyway?

 

**Bilan is not seeking to become something that exists within the confines of space and time. That is why he has been producing artificial dimensions using his Capture field. He is providing himself with a dimensional force field so that he can withstand the forces acting on him when he breaks out of the global timeline. To Bilan, the entire Universe is a giant Capture field for confining him, just as Jailer's Island looks to you and I.**

What the heck does he think is waiting for him on the outside of the whole Universe?

 

**I wish I knew. But I know one thing: the way this loop is designed, it is unfinished. It has no ending. And not just because loops don't have endings – this doesn't even have the connectors of a loop. It is attached to something outside it, but not linked to the outside world. There is more to it.**

I think I've heard of this story. Bilan's trying to reach Heaven, isn't he?

 

**That's a good analogy. An endless loop of reincarnation, with absolute disaster if you fall off the bottom, and transcendence if you escape.**

Kurt's grandfather built the Silver Clock Tower on the side of the mountain because he wanted to reach the Heavens. This has been going on for a lot longer than just my own lifetime, hasn't it?

 

**For all I know, it's been going on for longer than mine. There was a time when Snakebirds didn't exist, you know.**

So, what do I do now?

 

**If you want to, you've earned your chance for at least a shot at Heaven. But I must warn you. When you wake up, you won't be safely on the boat, and there'll be a very powerful man trying to kill you. Oh, and Jack won't be there, so you'll be completely screwed if you lose.**

What the hell is Jack trying to do?

 

 

**Restart time, every time you reach that little disagreement with Tracy. He's running out of energy, by the way.**

That man who's trying to kill me... it's going to be me, isn't it?

 

**That's right. To him, you look like Bilan. He'll also be the only Garian left, from the perspective of the timeline. Carbon Garian was very thorough. He was just a bit early. Well, actually, the remaining Garian was a bit late.**

What happened to Carbon Garian?

 

**He's just about to be murdered by a Garian he didn't see coming... I'm going to try and train you up a bit, so that you won't be completely outmatched when you meet the other Garian. You haven't been through the rest of the trials and tribulations that the other Garian has. I'm going to replay some simulations of those battles. Simulations aren't as good as the real thing, but it'll have to do now that we're running out of time. And, if you get through them all without losing a battle, I'll show you something else that you never had a chance to see. Are you ready?**

No time like the present.

 

**Then let's get started. The first challenger is Musashi Morganson...**

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
